
Origin of the Name Grimes
The
Grimes family history was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. The name Grimes is an anglicized form of a number of Gaelic septs including the O'Gormghaile sept of Connaught Province, the O'Gormleadhaigh sept of Ulster Province and the O'Greachain sept of Connaught and County Westmeath. These sept names were more often anglicized as Gormley, Gorman and Grehan respectively as well as Grimes.
A sept or clan is a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. Irish septs and clans that are related often belong to even larger groups, sometimes called tribes.
Like many of the independent septs of Ulster the O'Gormleadhaigh sept sank into obscurity after the Plantation of Ulster . As Grimes the name is mostly found in the County Tyrone area, where this anglicized form of the name has been Gaelicized as O'Greidhm.
The Grimes coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all Grimes descendants.